Instrumental Focus

viola

Stephen Wyrczynski is a Professor of Music, Viola, at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He was a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 18 years, joining them in 1992. He received his bachelor degree in 1988 from Juilliard. He was then accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music and earned a diploma there in 1991. His principal teachers were Kim Kashkashian, Karen Tuttle and Joseph DePasquale.

As a chamber musician, he has performed with such artists as Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Pamela Frank, Edgar Meyer, Vladimir Feltsman, and Dawn Upshaw. He has played in many of North America’s celebrated venues. He has had performances at the Aspen Music Festival and School, CO; Le Domaine Forget, QC; the New Port Music Festival, RI; the Grand Teton Music Festival, WY; Tanglewood, Lenox, MA; Kingston Music Festival, RI; the Casal’s Music Festival, PR; El Paso Pro Musica, TX; and the Apollo Chamber Players, Denver, CO.

Mr. Wyrczynski also performs regularly with his artist faculty colleagues at the Jacobs School of Music and participates in faculty-student collaborations. One such partnership, which he co-founded with his colleague violinist Jorja Fleezanis, is an ongoing exploration of music from the Second Viennese School, in which faculty and students together perform music by Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg.

Mr. Wyrczynski considers his teaching a direct result of his own relationship to performing, practicing, and listening. He approaches each student as an individual personality and potential artist. Teaching a student about the great privilege it is to serve the composers of our repertoire, is one of the best ways for the students to gain ownership of their musical training. He encourages students to ask probing questions and be musically curious beyond their own instrument. He has his students explore musical context rather than segregating technique from music making.

He has been an artist-faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2006. In addition to teaching private lessons, he conducts a class in orchestral audition repertoire and techniques.